But even before the story became public months ago, we were trying to recall just how many car collections like the Lambrechts' exist in North America, remembering the stories we heard about large car caches in fields, forests and sheds. Even as we browsed through the hundreds of cars on the "field of dreams" in Pierce, we overheard chatter about collections of similar scope, such as one with Ford models from almost every year of manufacture.

Almost everyone we met in Pierce seemed to have heard about troves like the Lambrechts' that existed in years past, like ones consisting of nothing but Cadillacs, or forgotten hangars filled with a hundred Porsches.

If a fraction of these tall tales are true, then the uniqueness of the Lambrecht Chevrolet sale rests only in the fact that it boasted a couple dozen low-mileage examples (a happy accident caused by its history as a dealership). And as unique as the legend and circumstance of the Lambrecht collection appeared, we knew for a fact that there are other collections like it out there. We knew we had to find some of these other collections. And we did.

Months ago, we got word of a large collection of 1960s-1980s foreign cars somewhere in the eastern United States. A number of people we talked to claimed to have seen it, or knew someone who had seen it years ago. Some had told us that it wasn't around anymore -- that the cars had either been sold off or scrapped. Others said that it was still there and contained a large amount of German and French iron. Just a few weeks ago, we had managed to nail down the details, and to our amazement, it turned out that this collection actually exists. Even better, the collection's owner let us see it.

A Peugeot 505 Turbo and an MGB GT sit in a shed. Photo by Jay Ramey

It took a few weeks, but we arranged a visit through an intermediary. The owner values his privacy and wished to remain anonymous for this piece. He's wary about people showing up on his property unannounced; he's wary about possible looting. So we'll just call him Leonard. And as we'll see below, he's collected some truly rare machinery over the years -- though perhaps not in the Barrett-Jackson sense of rare.

We arrived around midday after driving hundreds of miles. With the sun already starting to dip towards the horizon, we only had a couple hours of daylight to see it all. The cars, about 500 in total (until recently the collection had been as large as 600), were located in wooded groves, and the entire lot was spread out among a rather large area. Leonard's stock leans heavily towards European machinery, and immediately we saw models that we had only glimpsed in period brochures. Most were complete, but were in field-kept condition when we saw them, with some having sat in the same place for more than 15 years.

Though we'd dressed appropriately for the terrain and brush, we weren't able to see the entire collection for reasons that are perhaps a first for this publication: We arrived in the midst of deer hunting season, and it seems everyone in the county was dressed in camo that day.

"There's a guy, he's hunting up there," Leonard says, pointing towards the woods where dozens of Volkswagen buses are located. Leonard lets people hunt on his property occasionally.

"What's he using?" we ask, figuring we could probably chance it if we drove up in a loud pickup truck to let the hunters know we were around.

A rare Rover P5B, there are just a few of these left in the US. Photo by Jay Ramey

Well, we're hunters too, though of a slightly different sort. And we were there to see some rare foreign machinery, the kind you might have once seen in a car magazine 30 years ago with some tremendously pompous ad copy promising the bestest and most proper motorcar motoring money could buy. And the bestest most proper motorcar didn't take too long to find, as one of the first Leonard showed us was a Rover P5B, a four-door coupe from an age when automakers didn't try to pass off four-door coupes as a new thing.

"A P5B!" we shouted as soon as we spotted it.

"Yeah, I guess. A really rare car," Leonard says wearily. "This one also got saved from the junkyard."

"This is probably one of less than 10 in the country!"

So this is where all the 405 wagons ended up? Photo by Jay Ramey

Leonard has been buying cars for a few decades now, and even though most of the cars that he's purchased were more or less common (for foreign cars, anyway), there are some real rarities. The P5B on his property has been dormant for quite a while, but looks restorable, if cost was no object. The car seemed largely complete, right down to the badging and the mirrors, but it's not a project we'd recommend to someone who's had zero experience restoring Rovers.

We ask Leonard what his approach is to maintaining his menagerie, and how how often cars leave and enter the collection.

"I don't really have any plans for keeping them any specific amount of time. I just buy 'em. I don't really think about it," Leonard responds, adding that probably around 25 cars per year enter and leave the collection.

"It's mostly Euro; there's some American stuff but not very much. Fuegos; there are some LeCars down there," Leonard says as we continue walking.

We spotted a couple of Peugeot 405 wagons -- a model that was sold in the U.S. for just over a year. It didn't sell very well, as just over a thousand examples came into the country.

"Yeah, I can't remember what was going on with that. There was something wrong with it," Leonard says dryly. "There's a LeCar, another Peugeot. There's a Renault Encore over there. We just uncovered all this stuff. Another 405. I used to have a 604, but we sold it."

This Peugeot 404 sat in a shed, so it's in pretty good condition. Photo by Jay Ramey

And when it comes to Peugeots, in running condition or otherwise, we think it's safe to say that Leonard maintains a majority stake in examples of this French marque in the eastern United States. We saw everything from 505 wagons to 405 sedans in just about every trim level imaginable, and every condition imaginable.

Peugeots aren't the only French marque well represented in Leonard's collection, as we spotted around a dozen Renaults while walking around the woods. Not exactly the most illustrious examples of the marque, but examples nonetheless. And just a few yards away from the Fuegos, we saw a Renault Encore -- that would be the nearly extinct hatchback variant of AMC's Alliance range of coupes and sedans.

Of course, there's a reason the Encore is nearly extinct in the U.S., and that reason isn't lost on Leonard.

"This is all just junk," he says, as we continue exploring the grove. "There's one of my Peugeot wagons right there -- that actually runs. That's an automatic. That's a V8 Rover right there. There's a Mitsubishi 3000 over there."

This Ford LTD appeared ready to be driven. Photo by Jay Ramey

A few yards away, we spotted an unfamiliar sight: a profile of some British sedan from the 1950s.

"This is a 59 MG Magnette, which is basically an Austin Cambridge. It's not like those Magnettes," Leonard said, pointing to the earlier models. "There are two more Magnettes; there's one in my barn and I've got another nice one at a friend's house. There's an Alfa parts car. There's another BMW right there, a 1500," Leonard called out as we continued walking. We spotted a "Roundie" BMW among a row of Volvo 140s and 240s.

We reached a part of the woods where some American cars sit: an AMC Matador sedan and an AMC Eagle Wagon. Both looked restorable, though we have a feeling that someone would be upside-down on one after a day of restoration work. Still, they're cool cars to see, and they both appear to be complete (if a little rough).

We asked Leonard which cars he plans tow work on in the near future.

"Not too many of these cars here I'm going to restore," Leonard replied. "The Alfa over there is going to get restored, the Giulia Super. I had a Duetto, an old boattail. I bought a boattail and a GTV. I have to start letting go of stuff; I want to sort of save my energy for restoring some of these things."

Hundreds of foreign cars sit in the woods. Photo by Jay Ramey

Some of the cars in Leonard's collection we couldn't show you, as he keeps his most prized possessions in a garage, covered up. We got to take a peek, and let's just say they're things that we've never seen before -- or at least things we haven't seen in the last 10 years. Several of them are in the process of a restoration. And some cars we couldn't show you because they're too deep in the barn, and we didn't want to climb over other cars to get to them. Those also tended to be cars that we've either never seen on this side of the pond, or haven't seen live in the last 10 years.

This Saab 96 could perhaps be salvaged. Photo by Jay Ramey

Leonard's collection isn't a static fossil record in the way that the Lambrecht collection was -- cars enter and leave the collection every few months. We asked Leonard if there are any cars that he's sold that he really misses.

“Naah! You know, once they're gone, they're gone. I try not to think about them too much. There's probably a few cars that I miss, but I try not to get too nostalgic anymore, try to keep looking ahead.”

So perhaps the Lambrecht collection wasn't that unique, at least in terms of quantity. We saw hundreds and hundreds of European cars that were in far better shape than those we saw at Lambrecht, and while there weren't any with delivery miles, a numbers of cars stored in the shed were definitely low-mileage examples.

Leonard has no plans to liquidate his collection any time soon, as he first wants to restore a number of the cars. Even though the majority of them sit under the sky for now, it was still a treat to see so much rare machinery.